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This Week’s Snag Film: Disco and Atomic War

Snag Film’s SummerFest continues with the world premiere of Disco and Atomic War, which asks the question: Did disco cause the collapse of the Soviet Union?

According to this lighthearted and informative film, nighttime soap operas and disco-dancing footage had as much to do with the Soviet’s demise as did any political movement.

Disco and Atomic War tells the story of a strange kind of information war, where a totalitarian regime stands face to face with the heroes of popular culture. Despite a ban on western media, from the 1950s onward many Estonias were able to easily pick up Finnish radio and television broadcasts from across the border with homemade antennas. Western popular culture had an incomparable role shaping Soviet children’s worldviews in those days—in ways that now seem slightly odd. Finnish television was a window to the world of capitalism’s pleasures that the authorities could not block.

Blending dramatic reconstructions with talking heads and archival footage, the film includes some brilliant scenes such as, for instance, the filmmaker’s rural cousin Urve reading the latest “Dallas” plot developments to the entire town.

Remember, you can watch this documentary and many more for FREE any time you like at Snag Films! Check out the USO Theater widget on the homepage, and learn about the non-profits and filmmakers supported by these documentaries…